IFMC Partners with Mercy Medical Center in Medical Home Program
January 28, 2009
West Des Moines, Iowa - IFMC has partnered with Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, to create a medical home program that will enable the Des Moines region to become a leader in providing quality health care.
The medical home program is made up of a team of health coaches who review patients’ medical records, and provide ongoing support for patients both face-to-face and over the phone. Support includes: advice on nutrition, exercise and treatment management.
“This initiative is a great opportunity to improve the quality of care for patients, especially those with complex conditions or chronic illness, by coordinating care across various providers who deliver care to a patient,” says Mike Speight senior director of operations.
The Medical Home program supports physician practices in revising their processes of care, incorporating standard clinical measures, performance measurement and quality improvement. Additionally, the program invigorates primary care by offering financial incentives and a new reimbursement formula that supports care coordination and management of the entire population of patients in the practice.
In addition to partnering with Mercy in the medical home program, IFMC played a vital role in helping Mercy receive the 2008 Acclaim Award from the American Medical Group Association. The Acclaim Award is a prestigious honor given annually to the medical group that best exemplifies delivery of the highest quality health care in the United States.
IFMC provided Mercy with the CareMeasures Data Registry, an electronic patient registry used in the health care provider’s environment to securely collect clinical data for performance measurement and quality improvement purposes.
“Dr. Swieskowski, vice president for quality improvement at Mercy, and Kelly Taylor, director for quality at Mercy, took a leap of faith in the CareMeasures product by serving as our beta site for their entire medical home program,” says Mark Hennessey, program director. “CareMeasures ability to deliver real-time performance results enabled Mercy to provide patients with the best care at each office visit. As a result, CareMeasures has emerged as a premier product used by hundreds of physicians serving thousands of patients throughout the country.”